No one is happy with the compromise immigration reform bill brokered by the Bush Administration with liberal Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and conservative Senator John Kyl of Arizona. Immigration restrictionists pejoratively scream "Amnesty!," while immigrant advocates complain about harsh terms of the proposal that are likely to make legal status unattainable for many undocumented people. As the saying goes, maybe that means it's a good bill. In this case, the saying is inapt. The bill won't fix America's immigration problems, and very well could make them worse.

First, we need to face some facts. We cannot secure our borders before dealing with the problem of undocumented immigrants in the United States. People who demand border security first have it exactly backwards. Why? We will never build a significant enough wall or deploy sufficient border patrol agents to eliminate unauthorized migration from Mexico. It would be too expensive, too economically and environmentally damaging, and too controversial. We will not accept Soviet-style national identity papers for work or travel, or flying gizmos to spy on us at home and work. Americans are defined by our freedoms, not by Communist-era walls, papers, or spy programs. That Montanans especially relish our individual freedoms is demonstrated by our own Legislature's bipartisan, overwhelming rejections of the PATRIOT Act in 2005 and the REAL ID Act in 2007.

Here's another fact: we will never deport all the estimated 12 million unauthorized people in the United States, and won't even come close to it. It is time for rational people to stop giving this fantasy so much credence. Setting aside the millions of unauthorized people who are protected by law from removal (such as people seeking political asylum), it would be prohibitively expensive to locate, arrest, detain, and deport the remaining unauthorized population. In many cases, because the unauthorized immigrant has a US citizen spouse and children, it would be undeniably cruel. Moreover, huge segments of our national, and state, economies depend on the labor of workers who currently have no legal status.

So, what are we to do about the problem a shadowy population of about 12 million people? Bringing them out of the shadows, allowing them to pay a fine and back taxes, and giving them a place at the end of the legal immigration line seems like a good idea to me. Likewise a good idea: authorizing immigration programs that actually allow families to be unified, and permit employers to hire necessary employees while protecting native-born and immigrant workers.

We need an immigration bill that accounts for family and workplace realities. One that provides national security with workable programs acceptable to Americans. The failure of our current laws to handle immigration in a sensible and fair manner cannot be understated. Our immigration system is broken, and it will solve nothing to demand that existing laws be enforced. Existing laws got us into this mess.

The Senate compromise fails to deliver the goods we need. It creates a convoluted and stingy form of legalization tied to implementation triggers that probably will never be met. It establishes an exploitive guest worker program that would guarantee our problems with unauthorized migration and undocumented employment will continue. The compromise guts family-sponsored immigration, and assigns it the ignominious term "chain migration." Hello, Senators? The U.S. was settled by so-called chain migration of immediate family members, which until now was considered a good thing and called "family unification." The compromise zeroes out employer-based immigration, and establishes a point system that would reward only the most educated and highly skilled individuals from other countries with immigrant status, regardless of the needs of U.S. businesses. Others wanting to seek their fortunes in America would be relegated to guest worker status, which could never become permanent.

Our country is not founded upon such a cramped view of inclusion. Solving our immigration problems will not be easy. And perhaps the compromise bill can be amended to do some good, instead of making an even bigger mess out of our already broken system.

Deborah Smith is a lawyer in Helena and an active member of American Immigration Lawyers Association. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Montana School of Law, where she teaches immigration law.